Saturday, 10 August 2013

We all want to go into the new season forgetting about the past and looking forward to winning something: most supporters do. We read and listen to rumour and speculation and often overlook cold hard facts.

Wigan, Birmingham City, Portsmouth and Swansea: all trophy
winners during the Arsenal’s trophy
hiatus™, that’s a fact. Thirty-three consecutive
attempts at a trophy have ended in failure, that’s a fact. Everything else is
opinion and without facts all we can do is draw conclusions, make guesses:
educated and otherwise, and engage in debate: heated and otherwise. With a week
until the start of the new season it appears (I have carefully chosen the word
‘appears’) that our squad is somewhat thin. It appears that we will not be
adding a marquee signing, and it appears that we are looking at a season of
disappointment.

It is absolutely conjecture because what we the supporters, the
Bloggers, the Tweeters and all other interested parties lack is information.
This lack of information, clarity and insight from our club is based on
something that we all need to be concerned about: lack of accountability.

Arsenal Football Club, like many other Football Clubs, do not feel any
sense of accountability to their supporters. We pay financially and
emotionally. Yes those payments are freely chosen however they merit some level
of accountability from those we entrust with the successful management and
stewardship of our club, and it is ‘our’ club: that’s what differentiates a Football
Club from other business enterprises, it’s place as part of the wider
community. There is naturally a financial imperative at a modern club but other
concepts should hold true: glory, achievement, honour, ethos, fair play and
yes, accountability. Perhaps the most
important concept for the club is to be in with a fighting chance. To do
everything to ensure that the Arsenal have a fighting chance on an uneven
playing field, of winning something. If so-called lesser clubs can do it why
can’t we?

Some of the decision making during this long frustrating summer has
been hard to fathom to say the least. The cull of players makes sense but the
unfilled gaps don’t. The declarations of expenditure raised hopes but the lack
of purchases have caused consternation. The Suarez situation is downright bizarre
and the current size of the squad defies logic.

Aside from the supposed £70m earmarked for new players the club have
banked the season ticket renewal money, the BT revenue is monumental, the new
away kit is bringing in a steady flow and the wage bill has been cut, yet no
major additions have been forthcoming as of yet (one could argue that any
players bought in the next week will take a good few games to settle in anyway,
thus giving us a handicap to start with) and no one knows why: that’s the
frustration.

I personally believe that the transfer market has been Arsene Wenger’s
downfall, or rather his judgement in it. For a number of years his dealings
have been problematic. For me he has sold too many good players too often and
he has bought too many players that have not reached their potential. There was
a time when the outgoing of quality players was counter balanced by quality
incoming ie: Overmars/Pires, Petit/Gilberto, Anelka/Henry, Vieira/Fabregas,
Seaman/Lehman and many more, that trend has unfortunately long since ceased. It
may be financial handcuffs to an extent but I think a great deal is down to bad
choices. The list of players that have failed grows ever longer: Chamakh,
Denilson, Gervinho, Santos, Squilacci, Manone to name but a few: even the mercurial Arshavin ended
up derailed.

On a positive note I am happy with the core of young British players
in Gibbs, Jenkinson, Wilshere, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlaine at the club and
feel that they have real merit and are triers who need some real quality around them that the current squad lacks. If that quality is
not forthcoming I feel it will be a major disservice to them and us and may be
Arsene’s last straw moment with a lot of people. With seven days to the big
kick off it looks like once again the transfer window will close after the
horse has bolted for the Arsenal, and if that happens who is accountable?

Views, opinions and that...

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